Photograph of Princess Alix of Hesse in a three-quarters length portrait, facing three-quarters to the left. She stands with her left arm resting on the back of a studio prop.

Princess Alix was born at the New Palace, Darmstadt on the 6 June 1872 to Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom. She was their sixth child. She married Tsar Nicholas II who had succeeded his father, Alexander III as Emperor of Russia, on the 26 November 1894 at the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. Tsar Nicholas was formerly crowned as Emperor on the 26 May 1896 within the Kremlin.